The Crowds!

Lining up to see Old Faithful. Notice how far the benches curve around.

The Mammoth boardwalk

Yellowstone

Our first of many encounters with ... BISON!!!

We woke up at 6 am and got into the park by 7 am. It wasn't early enough. The park was having a free-entry day and it was packed. But in between the traffic jams, we got to see awesome things, including Old Faithful, on our one-day speedy drive-through. 

Old Faithful spouting!

View from Mammoth Hot Springs

Tucker, unfortunately, isn't allowed on any trails in national parks, so we couldn't stray too far from the pavement. It was very cool to see the earth so active, bubbling and boiling and steaming. It reminds that there is a lot more going on than what we see humans doing on the surface.

Much of the interesting springs were so shrouded in steam it was hard to see. 

Glacier National Park . . . Sort of

We don't seem to be having much luck with national parks this trip. Yesterday we drove up to Glacier National Park. With gray, rainy skies we didn't see much besides clouds, and the park was already filled with summer crowds. Realizing it wasn't going to be much of a beautiful hiking day, we opted for something more unusual for us. We rented a small motorboat and explored Lake MacDonald on the water. The two-hour ride was worth every penny. With no one else on the water and the trees blocking the road from sight, it felt like we were the only people in the park.

Dual battery working again!

We have our second battery system up and running again after it was out of commission for 3 weeks. The dealer that bought it from was great to deal with for the aftermarket support. The system is made in South Africa so getting parts wasn't that easy.
It will be very nice to have our fridge and lights working again.

Turning Point

We decided that this may be the quintessential photo of our trip. A dirt road, forest land, and snowy, jagged mountains. That's basically what we've been up to. 

Hours before this photo was taken, however, our trip hit its turning point. Misa (having jogged three miles into town in order to find cell phone service) received a call from the Burlington Public School District in Vermont offering her an ESL teaching position for the 2011-2012 school year. She accepted and so we will be moving to Vermont. We will still continue to explore Idaho (because you never know what may lie in our future), and then head into Montana to meet Colin's parents in Bozeman, but our traveling now has a known final destination--Vermont. EXCITING!!!!!

Return to the Boat Box and Stanley, ID

We loved Stanley, ID when we came here two years ago in July. We still love it. A small town of 100 people, it has some of the nicest scenery in the United States. It may take a few Vermont winters for Misa to get used to the kind of cold that Stanley gets though. It holds the number one spot for most number of days with the lowest temperature in the contiguous United States from 1995-2005.

Even big houses look small compared to the mountains 

Our return to the Boat Box, a hot spring along the Salmon River. We found that the box itself had changed (no longer wood, now metal), but the water was still just as hot and perfect.

Driving up to our campsite along Iron Creek Rd.

Colin on his way to go snowboarding

The view

In a park downtown

Boise and Butterfly Hot Springs

After our failed attempts at soaks in White Licks Hot Springs, we retreated to Boise, where we were welcomed into the home of Colin's old college friend, Angela, and her husband Bob. Both Angela and Misa were registered to take a Praxis exam in Boise on Saturday, so the timing worked out perfectly. We got a tour of the Eagle Fish Hatchery, where Bob is a fish culturist taking care of Idaho's endangered Sockeye Salmon. It was fascinating to hear about how Idaho Fish & Game cultures these fish, tags and monitors them, and releases them into the river.




On Sunday we headed east toward Stanley, stopping by what will now be known as the Butterfly Hot Springs, located between Garden Valley and Lowman in the Boise National Forest. Our pictures don't really capture how many they were because some flew off when we approached with the camera. The yellow ones (not shown) were especially shy.

The butterflies lining up for their soak

From the panhandle to Boise

Our journey from northern Idaho to Boise is perhaps best told through photos.

Driving through a thunder storm at sunset, Moscow, ID

Wildflowers the next morning, Moscow, ID

A roadside rainbow over Lewiston, ID

The view along our 4-hour hike in search of hot springs on the wrong road, McCall, ID

The hike certainly wasn't fruitless for Tucker, who found himself a nice toy...

... and kept himself very busy for the next few hours

The start of a long trek that was supposed to be a cross-country ski/hike to hot springs (this time on the right road), but turned into a 14-mile roundtrip journey to a tub of black sludge...

Wild Things

No doubt other creatures have stealthily passed us, but here is a list of interesting wildlife we've seen so far on this trip:

(not our photo)

Bobcat--Yosemite National Park, CA

Black Bear--Methow Valley, WA

Bald Eagle--Boise, ID (in its nest!)

Coyote--CA, OR, WA

(Our photo!)

Pronghorn--Stanley, ID

Pika--Stanley, ID

It's Pretty Country Here

This is our view as I write this. We are in Coeur d'Alene, the city that is incredibly hard to spell but has amazing forests and mountains around it. After spending some time in Sandpoint, ID, we arrived here today to pick up a package. Colin is now fixing our second battery set-up. I don't really know much else about what went wrong or what he's doing, but I'm really glad that he knows how to figure out all that electrical stuff!

A beautiful campsite in western Washington

So how did we get to Idaho? Well, we drove east from the Methow Valley. We took Highway 20 for quite a ways and then headed up to Metaline, a small town not far from the Washington/Canada border. A while ago we had filled out an online questionnaire together that was to magically determine which town in the United States is best for us. It was divined that Metaline was the place for us. I'm sorry we didn't take pictures because it was quite cute. Huge cliffs provided a dramatic backdrop for the small downtown and the Metaline Falls was not too far away.

After that we headed down through Spokane and then up to Sandpoint, Idaho. We explored Sandpoint's downtown for a while and then headed up into the forest to camp.

On Saturday, the first thought I had upon waking up was: "This is what I have been waiting for." A strong beam of sunlight was shining into my forehead and when I emerged from the truck, I could see the whole round sun. Not part of it. Not the general idea of it behind some clouds--the whole thing. We drove back to town to visit the farmer's market, strolled around the city beach park, and then headed back to the national forest to camp. We spent the rest of the hot, sunny afternoon splashing in an icy river and laying around with books and yoga mats. It was the perfect Saturday.

City Beach Park, Sandpoint, ID

Now we are in Coeur d'Alene. Somebody needs to buy me a bumper sticker that says I HEART IDAHO.